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Pogoplug for Android 3.2.1u06 Lets You Force Transcoding for a Specific Video File

The original Pogoplug is a reasonably priced ($99.99) storage sharing device. Up to three USB storage devices (hard drives or flash drives) can be attached to it to share files over a network. Its most interesting feature, however, is its ability to easily share files outside of your network in a secure manner. I was not as thrilled with Pogoplugs mobile apps, however, when I first received my Pogoplug last September.

Since then, the Pogoplug mobile apps have steadily improved. The recent 3.2.1u06 update for the Android app added a much needed feature not found anywhere else: The ability to manually request optimization of a video file for mobile viewing.

The Pogoplug is essentially a tiny Linux server. It has a built-in routine that transcodes every video file on the connected hard drives for optimized viewing on smartphones and the iPad. This transcoding process is, however, an extremely slow one. After more than six months of continuous (24×7) operation, the Pogoplug has still not transcoded most of the video files that I placed on it back then. This results in either an error or an attempt to play the native video file format on my mobile device. The on-demand update feature lets you tell Pogoplug to begin transcoding specific video files. It will still take some time to process the target file. However, it will be available at some point in the predictable future (minutes to hours later) rather than some indeterminate time.